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Grand Tattoo at Sookumpoo, Hong Kong 4th, 5th & 6th October 1928 -
1928 - Printed by The Newspaper Enterprise, Hong Kong - Only Edition
A fine and rare example of this programme for the 1928 ‘Tattoo’ in Hong Kong, an enormous undertaking for the time, and a fitting farewell to the Queen's Royal Regiment who were heavily involved and left Hong Kong the following year.
With three full page and five in-text illustrations, and nineteen pages of local Hong Kong advertisements.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1928 - Printed by The Newspaper Enterprise, Hong Kong - Only Edition
A fine and rare example of this programme for the 1928 ‘Tattoo’ in Hong Kong, an enormous undertaking for the time, and a fitting farewell to the Queen's Royal Regiment who were heavily involved and left Hong Kong the following year.With three full page and five in-text illustrations, and nineteen pages of local Hong Kong advertisements.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Shanghae Races, Spring Meeting, 1865, Second Day, Thursday, 27th April, 1865 -
1865 - Printed by A. H. De Carvalho, Shanghai - Only edition
Large and rare lavender China silk programme for one of the earliest Shanghai Races, the 1865 Spring Meeting (47.5 x 23.5 cm).
Listing seven races, all are with names of stables or owners, names of horses, weight or height, jockey silks colours, the horses include Arabs, English, China and Japan Ponies
The races are - Maloo Plate, for China ponies only; Arab Challenge Cup, for all Arabs; Chaasee Cup, for China and Japan ponies; Challenge Cup, for all horses [Arabs, Stud Bred, Colonials, and English]; Chu-Ka-Za Cup, for all Arabs; The Selling Stakes, for Colonial and Arab horses; and the Hack Stakes, for all horses not otherwise entered at this Meeting.
Finely presented in gold wood frame (64 x 38.5 cm), on acid free backing card, and with 99% UV protection ‘tru-vue’ museum grade glass.
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Price HK$ 25,000
1865 - Printed by A. H. De Carvalho, Shanghai - Only edition
Large and rare lavender China silk programme for one of the earliest Shanghai Races, the 1865 Spring Meeting (47.5 x 23.5 cm). Listing seven races, all are with names of stables or owners, names of horses, weight or height, jockey silks colours, the horses include Arabs, English, China and Japan Ponies
The races are - Maloo Plate, for China ponies only; Arab Challenge Cup, for all Arabs; Chaasee Cup, for China and Japan ponies; Challenge Cup, for all horses [Arabs, Stud Bred, Colonials, and English]; Chu-Ka-Za Cup, for all Arabs; The Selling Stakes, for Colonial and Arab horses; and the Hack Stakes, for all horses not otherwise entered at this Meeting.
Finely presented in gold wood frame (64 x 38.5 cm), on acid free backing card, and with 99% UV protection ‘tru-vue’ museum grade glass.
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Price HK$ 25,000
Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society - 1865 -
December 1865 - Printed at the Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai - New Series No.II
A rare and clean example of this early journal, produced by the Shanghai based North China branch, which was formed in 1857. In later covers, housing the original front paper wrappers.
Illustrated with two folding hand coloured shaded maps, two diagrams (one folding), and a number of in-text illustrations, .
Included in the nine articles are ‘Retrospect of Events in China and Japan’, ‘Birds and Beasts of Formosa’, and ‘The Hieroglyphic Character of the Chinese written Language’. To the rear are thirteen pages of miscellaneous articles and letters, followed by a summary of RAS proceedings during 1865.
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Price HK$ 5,500
December 1865 - Printed at the Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai - New Series No.II
A rare and clean example of this early journal, produced by the Shanghai based North China branch, which was formed in 1857. In later covers, housing the original front paper wrappers.Illustrated with two folding hand coloured shaded maps, two diagrams (one folding), and a number of in-text illustrations, .
Included in the nine articles are ‘Retrospect of Events in China and Japan’, ‘Birds and Beasts of Formosa’, and ‘The Hieroglyphic Character of the Chinese written Language’. To the rear are thirteen pages of miscellaneous articles and letters, followed by a summary of RAS proceedings during 1865.
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Price HK$ 5,500
A Voyage Round the World, In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. -
George Anson, Richard Walter
1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).
Containing forty-two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as a twelve-page subscriber list, and the two-page instructions to the binder.
England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and of 900 men 600 perished. As usual, scurvy took an appalling toll.
The Spanish fleet sent to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary objective of the expedition was not attained. Anson, however, continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines, he captured the Spanish galleon Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer.
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Price HK$ 59,000
1748 - Printed for the Author, London - First Edition
A finely bound ‘Royal Paper’ copy of this beautifully illustrated work which ‘has long occupied a distinguished position as a masterpiece of descriptive travel’ (Hill), and ‘a model of what such literature should be’ (Cox).Containing forty-two copper-engraved maps, charts, views, and coastal profiles, all but one folding, including views of Brazilian harbours and cities, Acapulco, Tenian, Port St. Julian, Magellan’s Straits, the Bay of Manila, Saipan, Lama, Lantau, Chinese junks, and others, and large folding maps of South America, the Philippines, and the Pacific Ocean, as well as a twelve-page subscriber list, and the two-page instructions to the binder.
England, at war with Spain in 1739, equipped eight ships under the command of George Anson to harass the Spaniards on the western coast of South America for the purpose of cutting off Spanish supplies of wealth from the Pacific area. Seven ships were lost and of 900 men 600 perished. As usual, scurvy took an appalling toll.
The Spanish fleet sent to oppose the British ran into storms; provisions ran out and many ships were wrecked. Thus the primary objective of the expedition was not attained. Anson, however, continued taking prizes off the Pacific coast during 1741-42, and in June 1743, near the Philippines, he captured the Spanish galleon Nostra Seigniora de Cabadonga and its treasure of £400,000 sterling, which allowed Anson and the surviving members of his crew to reach England much the richer.
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Price HK$ 59,000
Five Months on The Yang-Tsze -
Thomas W. Blakiston
1862 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition in scarce original publisher’s cloth. Illustrated by Alfred Barton, with sixteen full page woodcut engraved plates, eight in-text engravings, and two folding maps by John Arrowsmith of The Yang-Tze Kiang from Han-Kow to Ping-Shan [64x21cm] and China [31x22cm].
Blakiston [1832-91] was an English army officer, explorer and naturalist who served with the British forces in Ireland, Nova Scotia and the Crimea before being posted to Canton during the second Opium War in 1859.
While in Canton, Blakiston organised this expedition, navigating ‘one of the greatest rivers in the world a distance of eighteen hundred miles’. ‘Despite the region being subject to extensive insurgency, Blakiston was able to travel 900 miles further up the river than any European before him except Jesuits wearing local attire.
His narrative, divided into nineteen chapters with illustrations by Alfred Barton, contains many observations relating to the politically volatile situation in China as well as descriptions of the local landscape, flora and fauna. It remained the standard account of the region for fifty years’. [Cambridge Library Collection]
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Price HK$ 8,000
1862 - John Murray, London - First Edition
First edition in scarce original publisher’s cloth. Illustrated by Alfred Barton, with sixteen full page woodcut engraved plates, eight in-text engravings, and two folding maps by John Arrowsmith of The Yang-Tze Kiang from Han-Kow to Ping-Shan [64x21cm] and China [31x22cm].Blakiston [1832-91] was an English army officer, explorer and naturalist who served with the British forces in Ireland, Nova Scotia and the Crimea before being posted to Canton during the second Opium War in 1859.
While in Canton, Blakiston organised this expedition, navigating ‘one of the greatest rivers in the world a distance of eighteen hundred miles’. ‘Despite the region being subject to extensive insurgency, Blakiston was able to travel 900 miles further up the river than any European before him except Jesuits wearing local attire.
His narrative, divided into nineteen chapters with illustrations by Alfred Barton, contains many observations relating to the politically volatile situation in China as well as descriptions of the local landscape, flora and fauna. It remained the standard account of the region for fifty years’. [Cambridge Library Collection]
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Price HK$ 8,000
La Chine et les Chinois -
Auguste Borget
1842 - Goupil &, Paris - First Edition
Complete set of this renowned and highly prized collection of plates on China, including views of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton.
Tinted lithographic title page and thirty two sepia tinted lithographic plates on 25 sheets by Eugène Cicéri after Borget, letterpress text and title page, and two leaves of dedication.
‘The feeling of superiority to the Chinese, so characteristic of accounts from the 1840s, is absent here. The artist observes with a fresh eye.’ - Lust, Western Travellers in China.
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Price HK$ 210,000
1842 - Goupil &, Paris - First Edition
Complete set of this renowned and highly prized collection of plates on China, including views of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton.Tinted lithographic title page and thirty two sepia tinted lithographic plates on 25 sheets by Eugène Cicéri after Borget, letterpress text and title page, and two leaves of dedication.
‘The feeling of superiority to the Chinese, so characteristic of accounts from the 1840s, is absent here. The artist observes with a fresh eye.’ - Lust, Western Travellers in China.
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Price HK$ 210,000
Hundred Altars -
Juliet Bredon
1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition, published in Shanghai, and with the scarce and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.
‘Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1936 - Kelly and Walsh, Shanghai - Special Far Eastern Edition.
Unusually for Bredon’s works this was first published in London 1934, and later presented here as the Special Far Eastern Edition, published in Shanghai, and with the scarce and delicate Kelly and Walsh dust jacket. Normally the first editions of Bredon were published by Kelly and Walsh.‘Hundred Altars is the name of a village in Northern China, an impressive first novel by Juliet Bredon, long term expatriate and author of several detailed historical and descriptive works on China. Penetrates the soul of that vast country, revealing its people, its customs, its struggles as they have seldom if ever been revealed before. The soul of a nation lies in the hearts of its peasantry, and it is of the peasantry that this novel so unforgettably deals. We see them here in the strange humility, with those traits of character so curious in our eyes, these men and women and children of the village of Hundred Altars; they live before us so vividly that the story becomes one of intense personal importance to the reader.’ - publishers description.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Peking Studies -
Ellen Catleen (Thorbecke), Friedrich Schiff (illustrator)
1934 - Kelly &, Shanghai - First Edition
Describing the visit of Mr.Pim to Peking, where he meets with his colleague Mr Wu, and together they tour the wonderful city that is 1930’s Peking. As a gift to someone who is moving to China or has recently visited this is hard to beat. Things may have changed slightly though.
A clean, bright and thus scarce first edition of this charming large format book (38x27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, combined with photographs taken by Catleen on her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1934 - Kelly &, Shanghai - First Edition
Describing the visit of Mr.Pim to Peking, where he meets with his colleague Mr Wu, and together they tour the wonderful city that is 1930’s Peking. As a gift to someone who is moving to China or has recently visited this is hard to beat. Things may have changed slightly though.A clean, bright and thus scarce first edition of this charming large format book (38x27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, combined with photographs taken by Catleen on her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map.
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Price HK$ 10,000